The Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office is taking part in a weeklong effort to make sure more teenagers wear seat belts when they drive or ride in cars.

In Kansas, 51 teenagers died in car crashes last year. Officials said that 75 percent of those victims did not have seat belts on.

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Deputies patrolled the areas around every high school in Wyandotte County Monday afternoon to look for whether students driving away from the school had buckled up.

"From what I'm looking at now, not a single one of (those students) has a seat belt on," said Lt. Kelli Bailiff of the Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies aren't writing tickets, but they're giving out reminders. They said they want to reverse an attitude among teenage drivers that seat belts aren't cool.

"I think they think that they're made of some super hero, or there's some metal, or something that they're indispensable. They don't think it's going to happen to them. And it's not until something happens to one of them, or one of their friends, that it seems to grab their attention," Bailiff said.

Eboni Carter said she supports the effort. Her brother died in a car crash six years ago. She said that if he had been wearing his seat belt, he'd probably be alive today.

"Every day I have to live with the fact that my little brother is not here all because he did not wear his seat belt," Carter said.

On Monday, a deputy spotted one driver without a seat belt and pulled her over. The driver, Inez Silva, had a friend die in a car crash.

"It was raining, the (teenager who) died by the movies," Silva said. "Because she wasn't wearing her seat belt."

Silva said her friend's death changed her attitude about seat belts. She said she's worn her seat belt in the past and plans to continue doing so.

"Today was just an odd day," she said.

The patrols will continue all week long. Other law enforcement agencies in Kansas are conducting similar checks, in hopes that students will remember to fasten their seat belts over spring break.

The Kansas Department of Transportation came up with the initiative it calls SAFE, for Seatbelts Are For Everyone.